Walk into the old oakwood around Muckross and look at what is growing on the trees themselves

Find rhododendron invading under the canopy and see what it does to the ground layer

Walk the Torc or Muckross trails in rain, which is when an Atlantic oakwood is at its best

Look for the native red deer herd, present in Ireland since prehistory

Almost all of Ireland's native forest is gone, and what survives at Killarney is the largest remaining area of it — Atlantic oakwood, with the rainfall of the west Kerry mountains keeping the trunks and branches under a layer of mosses, liverworts and ferns that grows on the trees themselves. The threat now is not the axe but the rhododendron, which was introduced ornamentally, escaped, and shades out everything beneath it; clearing it is a continuous battle across the park.

The Killarney Oakwoods: Ireland's Most Extensive Native Forest

Killarney

Cork (Ringaskiddy)

Ten nights in a loop from Cork: Kinsale and Baltimore on the West Cork coast, Garnish Island at Glengarriff, Killarney's lakes, three nights in Dingle with the Blaskets, then Blarney and the English Market.

West Cork and Kerry from Cork

Rosslare

Twelve nights in a loop from Rosslare to Kerry and back: Cork Harbour and Kinsale, three nights in West Cork around Baltimore, Garnish Island and the Healy Pass, Killarney, then Cashel and Kilkenny.

South to Cork and Kerry from Rosslare

Swim a lap from Ross Castle pier out toward Ross Island and back — this is Killarney's established open-water swim entry point on Lough Leane

Cycle the N71 from Ross Castle towards Moll's Gap, a climbing stretch of the Ring of Kerry, then return the same way

Run or hike the stepped and boardwalked trail from Torc Waterfall car park to Torc Mountain's 535m summit

Time your change from swim kit to cycling gear at the Ross Castle car park, then from bike to running shoes at the Torc Waterfall car park

Finish back at Ross Castle by walking the lakeshore path into Killarney town

Ross Castle, a 15th-century tower house on the shore of Lough Leane, is Killarney's established open-water swimming and boating point, with boats departing here for Innisfallen Island. From the same car park, the N71 climbs toward Moll's Gap on the Ring of Kerry, and Torc Mountain rises 535m from the lake's southern shore, its summit reached by a stepped and boardwalked trail from the Torc Waterfall car park.

Ross Castle to Torc: A Killarney Multi-Sport Day

Complete the full 179km Ring of Kerry circuit starting and finishing in Killarney in daylight hours

Climb the Coomakista Pass out of Waterville — 3.5km averaging 6% with sections up to 10%, rising over 200m above the sea

Navigate Moll's Gap and Ladies View climbs successfully

Pass through Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin without support-vehicle backup

Record GPS proof of continuous ride completion

Finish back in Killarney having completed the full circuit in one day

Coach tours do the Ring of Kerry in a day, sitting down. This is the same 179km circuit from Killarney and back between dawn and dusk, under your own power and unsupported. The hard part is the Coomakista Pass out of Waterville — 3.5km averaging 6% with pitches to 10%, climbing over 200m straight off the sea — and then Moll's Gap and Ladies View waiting for you at the end when the legs are gone. Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin all have to be ridden through, not driven between.

The Ring of Kerry in a Day: 179km

Park at Knockreer Estate, opposite St Mary's Cathedral at the bottom of New Street, and walk the estate paths at dawn or dusk during rutting season (late September to November)

Locate a stag holding a harem of hinds and listen for its roar — the deep bellow stags use to warn off rivals during the rut

Photograph two stags locking antlers, or find fresh scarred ground where a recent contest took place

Drive to the Muckross Peninsula, directly opposite the main entrance to Muckross House, and compare the herd's size and behaviour to Knockreer's

Killarney National Park holds the only red deer herd in Ireland considered native to the country, present since prehistory. Each autumn, stags can be heard and sometimes seen at Knockreer, opposite St Mary's Cathedral, and along the Muckross Peninsula, bellowing and locking antlers for mating rights, with most of the activity in October.

The Killarney Rut: Ireland's Native Red Deer

Find the 12th-century Romanesque doorway on the Aghadoe Cathedral ruins, carved with chevron and rope-pattern mouldings, then walk to the adjoining round tower stump

From the Aghadoe viewpoint beside the ruins, identify Lough Leane, Innisfallen Island and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks in the distance

Book a treatment at the Spa at Aghadoe, in the hotel on the same ridge as the ruins

Aghadoe, a low ridge above Killarney, drew visitors long before there was a spa: the ruined cathedral and round tower here mark a monastery said to have been founded by St Finian the Leper in the seventh century, with the first stone church going up around 1027, and the adjoining viewpoint looks straight down onto Lough Leane, Innisfallen Island and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks. The Spa at Aghadoe, in the Aghadoe Heights Hotel, now shares the same ridge and the same view.

Aghadoe Heights: Spa and the Round Tower Above the Lakes

Walk or take a jaunting car through the Gap from Kate Kearney's Cottage

Stand at the Head of the Gap at 241m, the highest point of the pass

Follow the chain of lakes along the floor of the breach

Come out at Lord Brandon's Cottage in the Black Valley at the southern end

The Gap of Dunloe is a glacial breach: around 25,000 years ago a glacier in the Black Valley, part of an icecap estimated at over 500 metres deep, pushed through the mountain wall and cut this pass clean between MacGillycuddy's Reeks on the west and the Purple Mountain Group on the east. The road runs north to south from Kate Kearney's Cottage over the Head of the Gap at 241m and down into the Black Valley at Lord Brandon's Cottage, past a chain of small lakes in the bottom.

The Gap of Dunloe: A Glacier Broke Through Here

Walk into the Hag's Glen and climb the Devil's Ladder to the col

Stand at the summit cross of Carrauntoohil, 1,038.6m, the highest point in Ireland

Look along the Beenkeragh Ridge north to Beenkeragh and the Caher Ridge west to Caher — the only other Irish peaks over 1,000m

Come down by the zig-zags rather than the Ladder, which is badly eroded and dangerous with people above you

Carrauntoohil is the highest mountain in Ireland at 1,038.6m, standing at the centre of MacGillycuddy's Reeks on the Iveragh Peninsula. Most people go up the Devil's Ladder, a steep eroded gully out of the Hag's Glen — Com Caillí, the hollow of the Cailleach — which is the shortest way and not the easiest. Two arêtes run off the summit to the only other Irish peaks over a thousand metres: the Beenkeragh Ridge north to Beenkeragh at 1,008m, and the Caher Ridge west to Caher at 1,000m. A steel cross stands on the top.

Carrauntoohil: The Roof of Ireland

Swim from the Guillamene steps into Tramore Bay

Find the old men-only sign above the cove, a rule that lasted until the early 1980s

Swim at the Newtown Cove steps just along the same stretch of coast

Come back in winter and do it again when the water is at its coldest

The Newtown and Guillamene swimming coves sit off Cliff Road at the base of Newtown Head, cut into the rock with concrete steps, iron railings and diving boards bolted to the cliff. Until the early 1980s the Guillamene was men-only, and the old sign is still there. Irish cold-water swimming is not a wellness trend on this coast; it is an unbroken daily habit that runs straight through the winter, and this is one of the places it never stopped.

The Guillamene: Waterford's All-Year Swimming Cove

Walk the full length of Dollymount Strand along the island

Look for seals hauled out on the sand at the Howth end at low tide

Walk the dunes and the salt marsh on the landward side and count the wading birds

Find out how Captain Bligh's 1801 survey accidentally created the island

Bull Island is five kilometres long, under a kilometre wide, and entirely unintentional. Captain William Bligh — of Bounty fame — surveyed Dublin Bay in 1801, and the sea wall built afterwards to stop the Liffey silting up caused sand to pile behind it instead. An island grew where there had been open water. It now carries more conservation designations than any other site in Ireland, and has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1981, inside the boundaries of a capital city. Seals haul out at the Howth end at low tide.